Sunday's Internet Edition, July 20, 2008.
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Brademan has served on the Board for 10 years and had no comment. Oppermann is an Administrative Assistant with the District and when asked about the statement that she made during the meeting, she simply said, “I have not given a formal written letter of resignation.”
A meeting has been scheduled for this Friday, November 5, at the Lee County Courthouse, at 9 am, Item 3 on their agenda says, “Deliberation of the appointment, employment, evaluation, reassignment, duties, discipline, or dismissal of a public officer or employee, including but not limited to the Chief Appraiser Amelia Stayton, the Deputy Chief Appraiser, the Interim Chief Appraiser and the Board of Directors. Possible action relating to such appointments, employment, evaluations, reassignments, duties, discipline, or dismissals.”
Douglas Spacek, Secretary of the Lee County Appraisal Board, issued a written statement, saying, “On Wednesday, October 27, 2004, the Lee County Appraisal District Board of Directors met for its regularly scheduled monthly meeting. At the meeting, the directors met in executive session to discuss personnel matters. In open session, the board voted 3-1 to terminate Chief Appraiser, Amelia Stayton. Ms. Stayton was hired by the district in February 2003.
“During the meeting, Chairman Dorothy Brademan resigned. Since a vacancy now exists, the board will take action to notify the taxing entities that are eligible to vote on filling this vacancy.
“The board has called a special meeting in order to further address the termination of Ms. Stayton and take other actions that are necessary to continue the smooth operation of the district. The meeting is Friday, November 5, 2004 at 9:00 a.m. at the Lee County Courthouse, 1st Floor Courtroom.”
The Lee County Appraisal Board is made up of appointed members from each one of the taxing entities in the County. Those entities include the City of Lexington, the City of Giddings, Lexington ISD, Giddings ISD, and Dime Box ISD. There is one non-voting position on the Board held by Virginia Jackson, Lee County Tax Assessor and Collector.
Some recent problems plaguing the Appraisal District have kept them in the news this year.
In June of this year, estimated appraisals of land in Blue Properties increased 98% to 100% in value over last year’s appraisals, according to the Lee County Appraisal District, causing somewhat of an uproar in the area. Stayton said at that time, “The State of Texas has demanded that I bring property values in Lee County up to current sales prices.”
In a report to Commissioners’ Court in August of this year, Lee County Tax Assessor/Collector Virginia Jackson told the commissioners that the certified tax values for 2004 in Lee County went up $ 70 million, a 9.33 % increase over last year.
A review of the District’s certified values of personal property helped discover that 221 “old” properties had not been deleted from the tax rolls, causing an over estimate of certified values by $17,553,340.
In August Lynette Jatzlau, Deputy Chief Appraiser, said, “I started checking the valuations sent to us from our mineral appraisers, and those printed out from our True Automation software. That’s when I began to see the problem and duplications were found.”
Roy L. Holcomb was Chief Appraiser for Lee County for 16 years, resigning on October 31, 2001. The last two Chief Appraisers, including Stayton, served less than two years each.